Horizontal inequalities in children’s educational outcomes in Ethiopia

We go beyond previous studies of vertical inequality in Ethiopia, by investigating ethnic group-based, or horizontal, educational inequality. Currently, there are no known studies of differential schooling patterns across cultural groups in Ethiopia. The research draws on the Young Lives prospective longitudinal study of 929 children in later childhood. We investigate the extent to which ethnic group differences in schooling participation and progression can be explained by individual differences in socio-economic status. The findings show that poor educational participation and progression remain challenges for certain minority ethnic groups. Household wealth helps to explain the effect of ethnicity on educational outcomes. However, it cannot fully account for the ethnic gap. We conclude that conventional research, which emphasizes addressing individual differences in educational outcomes, or vertical inequalities, may downplay the role of cultural group-based inequalities in children's opportunities to learn.     

Reflexivity,position, and the ambivalent public space: the politics of educational policy in Taiwan’s local governments

The rise of reflexivity and neoliberalism has led to a change in the nature of the public sphere and policy management. Thus, focusing only on analyses of state-initiated policy and the actions of central government is not conducive to understanding the complex process of policy implementation today. Hence, this study aims to analyse the politics and process of policy implementation at the level of local government in Taiwan through two rounds of qualitative interviews. It is found that current policy environment has created the “agile” actors, which locates in the informally and flexibly collaborative space rather than structured within the formal institutions. And the value of administrators (accountability-orientated) is not favourable to successful implementation. Moreover, a successful case of policy implementation is also analysed. It is concluded that “reflexivity” and “position” in the “ambivalent public space” are the key factors to interpret the process of policy implementation. Finally, it is suggested that we should expand key actors’ “macro imagination” (recognizing the changing nature of the public sphere) and “micro imagination” (creating discourses reflecting current problems and reconstructing new possibilities) in the process of policy enactment.     

Singapore’s educational policy through the prism of student voice: recasting students as co-agents of educational change and ‘disrupting’ the status quo?

This paper examines the implementation of Singapore’s landmark policy, ‘Thinking Schools, learning Nation’ (TSLN), in developing ‘thinking students’ through the prism of student voice. In the context of twenty-first century education and the growing importance of student voice in education, this paper argues that the time might be right to ‘disrupt’ Singapore’s education status quo and incorporate meaningful student voice in education policies. Instead of perceiving students as mere subjects of educational policy enactment, and seeing policy as something that is done to them, it should be reconceptualised as something which is done with them; importantly, students should be recast as key co-agents of educational change, consistent with TSLN’s reconceptualization of learners as ‘thinking students’. Basing its arguments on findings from a qualitative case study of students’ perceptions and schooling experiences of critical thinking in TSLN, this paper considers the case for the inclusion of significant student voice in Singapore’s educational policy reforms. It fills gaps in research on student voices in Singapore’s educational reforms and TSLN’s research from students’ perspective. The paper suggests that the inclusion of student voice in educational reform might be the next landmark step in ‘disrupting’ its educational landscape after the ‘big bang’ of TSLN.     

Shaping the educational policy field: ‘cross-field effects’ in the Chinese context

This paper theorises how politics, economy and migrant population policies influence educational policy, utilising Bourdieusian theoretical resources to analyse the Chinese context. It develops the work of Lingard and Rawolle on cross-field effects and produces an updated three-step analytical framework. Taking the policy issue of the schooling of internal migrant children as an example, it analyses how a range of fields – political, economic and public policy – ‘export’ their logics of practice into the educational policy field (as a sub-field of the public policy field) and consolidate the changes. The cross-field effects shape the state school enrolment policy and the relative positions of agents and the relative value of their capital in the educational policy field. This paper demonstrates the analytical capacity of Bourdieusian theoretical resources for policy analysis in the Chinese context, by illustrating how the inequalities experienced by migrant families have been intensified in education by cross-field effects.     

Teachers’ instructional perspectives and use of educational software

It has been argued that technology will promote the use of constructivist approaches to teaching and learning advocated by the current reform movement. Yet computer technology, in and of itself, does not embody a single pedagogical orientation. Different types of software can be used to address different educational goals. This article examines relationships between teachers’ instructional perspectives and their use of technology in instruction. Findings indicate that views about effective computer-based pedagogy are related to the types of software teachers report using with their students. Addressing these perspectives about effective instruction is necessary if computers are to reach their educational potential.     

The Common Core’s promises and pitfalls from the perspectives of policy entrepreneurs and ground-level actors

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (Common Core) was spearheaded by policy entrepreneurs, unveiled nationally in 2010, and initially received strong support from leaders in state and federal government, philanthropic foundations, the business sector, and teacher unions. However, the reform came into the crosshairs of an ideologically wide set of politicians and interest groups. What is less well understood about the controversy are the responses the reform encountered within states, particularly from ground-level actors, such as parents, local educators, school boards, and community members, as well as their elected representatives. This study uses two data sets to examine how the promises and pitfalls that the reform’s policy entrepreneurs anticipated in 2011 were received by ground-level actors in 10 states between late-2013 and early-2014. The findings suggest ground-level responses to the anticipated promises and pitfalls both spurred and resonated with interest groups to disrupt the reform’s support among state-level leaders. The findings also suggest that political and implementation lessons may be gained from further study of the adoption and implementation of the Common Core in California. Whether the Common Core in California or other states may improve achievement or equity is considered in light of third-wave reforms.     

Prague as the centre of Russian educational emigration: Czechoslovakia’s educational policy for Russian emigrants (1918–1938)

This article looks at the role played by the Czechoslovakian Republic in the establishment and maintenance of the “Russian education system in exile” in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. No other country supported the educational activities of the Russian emigrants as generously as Czechoslovakia. Thanks to this extensive and targeted support, a well‐developed “Russian education system” came into being in Czechoslovakia, and Prague became the centre of Russian educational emigration in Europe. Czechoslovakia’s support for the Russian emigrants had not only humanitarian reasons, but was to a large extent motivated by political and economic interests.     

New perspectives on the positioning of parents in children’s bullying at school

This article explores the subject of parents with respect to children’s bullying at school. The overarching claim is that parental agency and positions on children’s bullying at school are produced and made possible by an apparatus of multiple, concurrent forces that provide poor conditions for a constructive partnership between parents and schools in cases of bullying. This research adds to the existing literature in the field by suggesting that the connections between schools, parents and their children’s social behaviour at school must be seen as complexly entangled and involving a range of forces at local, societal and political levels. Furthermore, based on an emergent research design, the article contributes to the discussion of post-qualitative research, drawing upon varied, qualitative empirical material and analytically experimenting with combining Adele Clarke’s idea of situational analysis and Karen Barad’s concepts of intra-action and apparatus.     

Encountering education in the rural: migrant women’s perspectives

ABSTRACT

This paper explores migrant women’s encounters with formal and informal education in what can be termed new immigration rural destinations. We ask to what extent educational opportunities are realized in these new destinations. We show that education aspirations may be jeopardized because of the desire to achieve economic goals and thus require remedial action. Specifically, we refer to qualitative data collected in rural (and remote) Boddington in Western Australia, and rural Armagh in Northern Ireland. The paper engages with two interrelated dimensions of this migrant/migration experience. English is not a first language for our participants and we first examine the provision and consumption of informal English Language classes. In doing so, we demonstrate the complex social and cultural dimensions of community-based English language instruction. Second, we attend to migrant mothers’ perceptions of and responses to children’s formal education. We highlight transnational senses of, and tensions around, ‘local/rural’ pedagogies and resultant migrant strategies.     

A qualitative literature review of educational games in the classroom: the teacher’s pedagogical activities

The interest towards research on learning games is continuously growing, however, the integration of games in teaching is still a somewhat unexplored area of study. In this qualitative literature review, we were interested in the pedagogical foundations that underpin empirical studies and especially in the teacher’s role/activities regarding the use of games in education. The data collection method was based on the systematic literature review models. The data consisted of 35 articles that were coded by using interpretive approach. The results indicate that the teacher’s role was pedagogically active in 21 articles. The teacher’s pedagogical activities became evident in various game-based learning processes: in planning, in orientation, during the gaming, and after the game-play sessions.     

Policies of global English tests: test-takers’ perspectives on the IELTS retake policy

Globalized English proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are increasingly playing the role of gatekeepers in a globalizing world. Although the use of the IELTS as a ‘policy tool’ for making decisions in the areas of study, work and migration impacts on test-takers' lives and life chances, not much is known about its own policy and policy logic. With the growing call for listening to test-takers' voices, specific policy aspects of the test have recently been scrutinized. This article seeks to contribute to this area by drawing on test-takers' perspectives on the IELTS retake policy and developing an understanding of how policies of global English tests are perceived, interpreted and given new meanings by its key stakeholders. Although the truth-value of the emic views of test-takers may be debated, their experiences and perceptions problematize the reliability claims of the testing agency by locating commercial motives at the center of their policy and thereby raising theoretical, professional and ethical questions.     

Mapping the educational work of governesses on Australia’s remote stations

This article is about the educational work of governesses on Australia’s remote cattle and sheep stations. These stations occupy vast tracts of land in the outback, and form part of global food supply chains exporting meat to countries around the world. The article explores the nature of governesses’ work, the boundaries they negotiate to perform their work, and the spaces and places in which it takes place. The governess occupies a unique position within the occupational and social hierarchy of the station. She lives and works in the same domestic space as the family/employer, unlike other station employees, and is valued for her success in managing the social and spatial dynamics of power both with the students/children and the employer/family. The article focuses on the negotiation of boundaries between domestic/public spaces, paid/unpaid, affective and educational labour involved in governess roles.     

Toward a theory of the educational encounter: Gert Biesta’s educational theory and the right to the city

This paper outlines a theory of the educational encounter, the space of, and the right to that encounter. Situated in response to neoliberal educational reforms, this theory is developed through a reading and synthesis of the educational theory of Gert Biesta, the architectural component of his theory, and literature on the right to the city. The author argues that the notion of the encounter is latent yet central in Biesta’s work and that it can be further cultivated and more precisely attended to by turning to theoretical work on the right to the city, which is engaged here primarily through the lens of the encounter. Several themes are drawn out from the literature that can help in formulating a theory of the educational encounter such as the habitat/inhabit dialectic, the use/use-value/exchange-value framework of space, and the role of struggle in the production and maintenance of space.